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Rugby team wins championship

Ohio Northern University’s Black Rose men’s rugby team captured the Ohio Rugby Union (ORU) Division III Championship with a 31-22 victory over the University of Kentucky at Rhodes Field in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010.

Joshua Koza, a senior management major from Fairview Park, Ohio, scored two tries. Tim Smith, a senior music education from Westerville, Ohio, Cody Wenrich, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from Amherst, Ohio, Allen Muzilla, a junior mechanical engineering major from Wadsworth, Ohio, and Kory Thatcher, a junior civil engineering major from Middle Point, Ohio, each scored one try. Team president and captain Brian Majoy, a senior pharmaceutical business major from Westlake, Ohio, made three of six conversion attempts.

“From the first day of practice, we’ve been stressing unselfish team play,” said Black Rose coach Robert Kanzig, a 1994 Ohio Northern graduate. “Five players scoring in a game like this just shows how well this team plays together.”

“The rugby program has come a long way,” said Ray Schuck, visiting assistant professor of history and rugby program advisor. “We are all proud of the progressand accomplishments of all the students involved in the program and this significant victory.”

The victory wraps up a perfect 8-0 fall season for ONU, which finished the regular season at 6-0 and earned the top seed in the ORU’s Northern Division.

“This is a great victory for our team and a historic victory for the Black Rose rugby program,” said Majoy. “I couldn’t be more proud of all the hard work and dedication put forth by our team this year to bring a state championship to ONU.”